Tag: Book Review

Posted in Spicy Romance

Her Stepbrother is a Monster

Posted on by Little Bee

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Her Stepbrother is a Monster by Trinity Blacio

Rating: 5 stars

This book was provided by Netgalley and Riverdale Avenue Books in exchange for my honest review. 

 

This book offered a bit of a different take on dragon shifters. I liked that it was pretty original in that sense. There were times, like I have indicated in the past, where a better editor is needed as sometimes it gets confusing on what I am reading.

Maven finds out that she is a dragon, her mother is a dragon, and that her father and new stepfather were also dragons at her mother and stepfather’s wedding. She also meets her mate, Azure there. Maven was in a horrible marriage where she was abused. Turns out, this guy was disguising himself and was also the cousin of Azure. She realizes this, also at the wedding, when she can’t figure out why she wants to deck this man she meets. Maven’s dragon is one of the original royal children who have not been seen for many years. Upon the awakening of this royal dragon, Chandrass, towards the end other royals start popping up as well.

I felt the story was way too short and that when things started getting good, it just ended and I was left very WTF-ish and had to check to see if that really was the end. There was not much sex, and to be honest, I forgot that they actually had sex the first time. The rest of the story is really what made this so great that I would give it a 5 star rating.

Posted in Middle Grade

Beyond the Gloaming

Posted on by Little Bee

Beyond the Gloaming by Brendan Murphy

Rating: 4 stars

 

I have received this book by the author in exchange for my honest review.

 

I first want to start off saying, I deeply apologize for it taking so long to get this review. Between traveling for Christmas, my internship, homework, work, and the flu, I have lacked any reviews. But! I am done with my internship and now have some free time to do those things I enjoy!

Beyond the Gloaming is about a boy named Sebastian who is a very lucid dreamer, only his dreams are real and he doesn’t often remember them or are able to interact with them, until the day two school bullies nearly kill him. His body puts him into a comatose state in order to protect him, that state is where the story takes place.

Sebastian is Irish currently living in England. Sometimes the words are hard to understand because the author is writing with a strong Irish dialect, which comes across the way it supposed to, but hard to understand (for me anyways). Sebastian’s older brother died, and his mom appears to be bipolar and goes from ignoring him, to beating him. When his mother is in one of her moods, dad usually punishes Sebastian as they blame him for the swings.

During his comatose state, Sebastian is transported to the Gloaming, a shadow world, an in-between, a dreamworld. Here he meets Porrig, a creepy little creature that Sebastian is forced into trusting blindly. Sebastian is special, and he is to be delivered to the King of Hibercadia in hopes to save Hibercadia from Phobitor, one of the gods from another dreamworld. Phobitor sends many to try and destroy young Sebastian before he can reach the item he is searching for.

This is a coming of age tale, in a way. Sebastian, who is weak, and feeble, who has no self confidence, and written to save an entire world he didn’t even know existed. Sebastian learns much about himself throughout his journey, finding smarts he didn’t know he had. This story is filled with excitement, adventure, and betrayal. Murphy is a great world builder, but sometimes I would get lost and have to reread.

One of my issues I had with this book is the terminology. It has a lot of Gaelic, which I am unfamiliar with. I have had to google words such as,  sgian dubhs, which I had no clue what they were. I did discover there is a glossary in the back, however, I found out at the end of the book, and I had a PDF copy, so it would not have helped me. For me, if I do not always understand what is being said, and have to reread portions, I get really lost and start to lose interest. I do recommend this book, however, I would read a physical copy so you can access the glossary in the back. For other words not included, I would have your phone at the ready to google, which is what I had to do often.

Overall, I did enjoy the book and would read more of Murphy’s work. I am however, not certain I will continue with this specific series because of my difficulty with the language used. I still gave the book 4 stars however for it’s originality, and because I still did like the book.

 

Posted in YA Book Reviews

Submerging

Posted on by Little Bee

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Submerging by C.S. Johnson, narrated by Nicholas Sanister

Rating: 4 stars

Narrator Rating: 2 stars

 

I received a copy of Submerging in exchange for my honest review.

 Submerging is the third book in the Starlight Chronicles by C.S. Johnson. This is the story where Dinger a lot of his memories back and is able to see who he was before he fell, and find out why he fell. There is still a lot of mystery around Starry Knight. I still try to sort out who it might be, though I have some suspicions.

I did enjoy this story, and I am growing more fond of Dinger in all of his assholiness, however, I still have some concerns about him. In general, the series has been good, and Dinger’s personality (though annoying) is essential. As the reader continues through the story, the reasons for his personality start making more sense. If I can be honest, I wish his parents knew he was. It also sucks that he has to literally drop everything (leave a date, leave class, not show up for practice) whenever anything happens and calls him to battle.

This story has many underlying religious elements. Normally I wouldn’t complain so much, but I felt it was too overdone. I am hoping it is not so much in the other stories in my continuation through the series. I am not religious, however, I have read many Christian Fiction books and they are okay and do not overdo certain concepts. Here, it felt like everything was thrown at the reader, and it felt constant, and it was exhausting. (For the record, I respect other people’s beliefs). The first two books, the religious elements were hidden between the lines, which made it more enjoyable.

As with Calling, the narrator is meh. The audio editing is bad. When he makes mistakes, there are silent pauses and you can here him say “oh” and he rereads the section again like he lost where he was. He again did this several times. I usually do not condone the changing of narrators in series, but, I would stand behind a change in this narrator 10000000000%.

I look forward to the ultimate finale of the series. I have a hard time not knowing what is going to happen. With the rate things are going, it is hard as the reader to believe it will end, and the town will have a reprieve. It feels like the town may have to have Wingdinger and Starry Knight to protect them for the rest of eternity at this point. There is a lot of action and there are hardly any points in which the story feels slow.

Posted in Middle Grade

Aleks Mickelsen and the Twice Lost Fairy Well

Posted on by Little Bee

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Aleks Mickelsen and the Twice Lost Fairy Well by Keira Gillett, narrated by Michele Carpenter 

Rating: 5 Stars

Narrator Rating: 5 Stars

I was given a copy of this audiobook from the author in exchange for an honest review.

I was super happy when book 4 in the Zaria Fierce series was released. This book follows Aleks and his journey towards either becoming totally human, or remaining changeling. It threw me off at first, but this book occurs 3 years after book 3 ends.

The day started out odd compared to every other day. First his mom lost her fridge, and then there was a fire in the chem lab at school. After school, on a plane ride with a few of the guys, the plane suddenly crashed. After the police brought the boys home, and Aleks to his house, Aleks went to his room, where Nori began knocking on his window. Nori convinced Aleks to get Zaria and come help find Fritjof, the last dragon, that is trying to escape.

Aleks, Geirr, Filip, Zaria, Christoffer, and Henrick all agree to follow Nori on the adventure to prevent Fritjof from escaping the Under Realm and end the pending throne war in Niffleheim. Aleks is worried as his age of maturity as a changeling is fast approaching. If he is still away from his human home at this time, he will stay that way forever. The group go on a wild adventure together, getting captured by the Wild Hunt all over again, to see that the king had been overthrown, and the first borns had been captured.

This story was just as amazing as the first 3 stories in the series. My biggest, and only, issue I had with the story was that the narrator changed the voice of Henrick in the story. It started out with one specific voice, however, as the story continued he began to sound EXACTLY like Hector, his father. That is really the only issue I had. Like the three before it, this story went fast and now I am saddened I have to wait for book 5 :(. There is so much that I loved about this story. Aleks is one of my favorite characters and I am so excited that he is getting his own stories so that readers can learn more about him and go on this journey of self discovery along with him and his friends.

Posted in Middle Grade

Strange Lands

Posted on by Little Bee

Strange Lands by Anderson Atlas 

Goodreads Rating: 4 stars

Actual Rating: 3.5 stars

 

I received a copy of Strange Lands in exchange for an honest review.

Allan is in the 8th grade when he is in a terrible car accident that killed both of his parents and left him wheel chair bound. His uncle, Rubic, comes to take care of him, but Allan struggles to get through the loss of not only his parents, but his ability to move. As such, he feels extremely helpless and useless.

One day, Rubic decides to take them camping because he believes fresh air and wilderness will do Allan some good, though Allan is not a fan of the camping idea. They were getting ready to go fishing, and a storm was coming and they were told to clear out by a Ranger. They didn’t, and went fishing anyway when boulders and large amounts of water come crashing through the lake. The water barrels over Rubic, who was trying to carry Allan to safety. Allan builds a small dam around Rubic to keep him safe and begins crawling to search for help, only he sees he is not in what looks like Earth anymore. From there he goes on an adventure through a land called Lan Darr.

It took me a while to finish this book. I won’t say it is slow, but it took a while to really capture my attention, so I would stop for a while and then go back to it. Once my attention was grabbed, though, I finished it rather quickly. The issue was primarily that, while I have an active imagination, I had a hard time visualizing what I was reading.

There are some pictures in the book, however, I find that they didn’t line up in sync with the story. Pictures were occurring prior to the part in the book that explains what is going on in that picture.

In regards to Allan’s disability, I liked that it shows how he starts out depressed and struggling to cope, but by the end, and every trial he faced, he found his worth.

I also liked how, at the end, even as the reader, I questioned if it actually happened or not. I think that is a good way to entice the reader to pick up the next book.

The picture below shows how the book was messed up and the about the author was put into the pages left of the story.

 

Posted in YA Book Reviews

Slumbering

Posted on by Little Bee

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Slumbering by C.S. Johnson

Rating 5 stars

I received a copy of Slumbering in exchange for an honest review.

Slumbering is an uniquely, original, YA epic fantasy about a teenage boy that learns he was once a warrior for a Star Prince and at some point was sent to earth where he became human until his powers unlocked. As such, this story is about his “acceptance ” of responsibility for his role to fight off evil demons and protect his friends and community (the latter more so out of obligation than desire).

Even though I have given the book 5 stars, I absolutely cannot stand Hamilton Dinger. He makes the story hard to get into because he is so narcissistic it makes the story as a whole almost unbearable. Dinger thinks he is God’s gift to humanity (even though he would not agree that he was God’s gift…just a gift to everyone through nature ). So why the 5 stars? Because I couldn’t put it down and I found myself secretly hoping he gets it together and stops being such an asshat.

The book is a fairly quick read and flows well. It is also a completely original epic fantasy YA, which is hard to come by these days. It offers a unique story that is intriguing and will spark curiosity for the rest of the series and intrigue as to how this war will ultimately go down.

As much as I can’t stand Dinger, I am hoping he has a lot of character development that makes him a more likable super hero. It is entirely unfortunate that a jerk like him gets something so awesome and he continues to be arrogant. We all know what happens to arrogant superheroes.

The bulk of this story is to set up the characters in the story line, introduce some of the demons and what their end game is, as well as, portray Dinger as a jerk. Honestly, I don’t feel sorry for anything that happens to Dinger.

If you are curious about this book and would be interested in reading it for yourself (which I recommend) you can check it out: Amazon

Keep posted as I am currently listening to the next installment of the story!

Posted in YA Book Reviews

RoseBlood

Posted on by Little Bee

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RoseBlood by A.G. Howard

Goodreads Rating: 3 stars

Actual Rating: 2.5 stars

 

RoseBlood came to me via one of my OwlCrate boxes. I immediately started to read it because I had enjoyed Howard’s Splintered so much, I just knew RoseBlood had to be just as good. Well, this was sort of a miss for me. I have never read or even watched The Phantom of the Opera so I know some things may be lost on me. I was intrigued by the story and had been looking forward to reading it when I first received it.

I want to end on a positive note with my book review, so I will start with what I didn’t like. The pace was not great. It was so slow starting out that it wasn’t until about halfway through the book, things got exciting. Also, completely pace related, but the climax of the story was kind of anti-climatic for me. The entire culmination of events happened in a few short pages, and then the last 10ish or so pages was how Rune dealt with the aftermath. Also, at the end, all is forgiven…and I can’t seem to wrap my head around it. Finally, the ink is red. This may seem like such a small minute detail, but it often hurt my eyes and I would constantly have to focus harder on the words. I get that it was supposed to enhance the eeriness and nostalgia to the story, but it got to be uncomfortable.

So things that I liked. I really enjoyed the budding relationship between Etalon and Rune. I wish I could have had more Etalon than was given. I am glad for how it ended, and would have been distraught had the ending been different. I would love to read a story about Etalon, but more exciting than RoseBlood. I liked Rune, even though I wished her history was a bit more beefed up. I really liked Aunt Catherine and wished she had a larger role during the story…she had a larger role at the end, but would have been nice to have her around more. I mean, I understand why, without giving any spoilers, but I still would have liked it. I feel she could have added some comic relief when needed :).  As a reader, it is important to feel the connection between Etalon and Rune, because, as the story infers, it is electric and intense. I felt that way reading their interactions. This is the biggest reason I rated up instead of down.

 

Posted in Book Reviews

Adam Exitus

Posted on by Little Bee

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 Adam Exitus by Nicholas Abdilla

Goodreads rating: 5 stars

Actual rating 4.5 stars

I was given a copy of this book from Old Mate Media in exchange for my honest review. 


I want to start with my negative first…the beginning was too slow and too confusing for me. I almost didn’t keep going. Give it a few chapters and things pick up. 

This story is about a man named Adam who wakes up face first in the mud one day in a cave far away from home. There is a beautiful woman in the cave with him but she doesn’t talk. He makes a promise to get them both free one day. After a few failed trips to find a way out, Adam almost resigns himself to stop trying. That’s when everything changes. 

I fear giving more detail about the synopsis will give away the whole book. It has twists and turns and I never knew how to feel. One minute I felt one way and then one action would change EVERYTHING. I can’t wait for people to read this book. It is such a breath of fresh air in the science fiction world!!! 

I look forward to reading more by this author! 

Get your copy:

www.oldmatemedia.com/shop 

Amazon: http://geni.us/AdamExitusK

iBooks: http://geni.us/AdamExitus

Posted in Book Reviews

The Fairy Godmother

Posted on by Little Bee

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The Fairy Godmother by Mercedes Lackey, narrated by Gabra Zackman

Goodreads Rating: 5 stars

Narrator Rating: 5 stars

 

A member of my book club talked about this series in a recent book club meeting. I decided to give the series a try. I really enjoyed the narrator. She made the story entertaining to listen to.

The Five Hundred Kingdoms series follows various individuals who discover what fairy tale the “Tradition” wants them to follow. In The Fairy Godmother, Elena was supposed to become Cinderella, however, after some unfortunate turns, she becomes the apprentice of the Fairy Godmother and eventually becomes the Fairy Godmother herself. During one of her Godmother tasks, she turns a prince into a donkey. This prince is supposed to learn about how he treated the Godmother, who had been disguised as an old beggar on the side of the road, is typical of how he treats all of those individuals of similar status. The Prince eventually learns that he was not living the life of a future good king, and begins to change.

I will not go into further detail, as the book is worth the read. I found that there were never really any slow parts to the story. The narrator kept me enamored the whole time. By the end of the story, I was ready to buy the rest of the series to keep going. This start to the Five Hundred Kingdoms series is well worth the read. I do not have anything really negative about the story. I disliked all the characters that you want to dislike. I look forward to learning about the other characters the Tradition has its sights on. My favorite part of the book are the unicorns who get their sights on virgins and follow them around becoming obsessed, protecting them, and doing the virgin’s bidding. The Fairy Godmother is very unique and well worth the read.

Posted in YA Book Reviews

A List of Cages

Posted on by Little Bee

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A List of Cages by Robin Roe

Goodreads Rating: 5 stars

 

When I heard about A List of Cages I knew I HAD to read it. I received this book on January 13, 2017 and finished it in one sitting.

A List of Cages broke me to my very core. It strips away everything you feel, to the barest of raw emotion and then squeezes your heart until it feels like it is caving in on you. This story is about a boy who the system failed and broke and his journey to strength.

I have been struggling with this review for a while, because, what words can I say that will express what is this book? There are a lot of negative reviews on this book, but I work in this EVERY SINGLE DAY. I see these broken children. This book is a must to put to light the failures in the system.

My suggestion is to read this book. This pain is a necessary evil. I hope Robin Rowe has other books in the works.